Joseph's marriage.

Taken from Lancashire Online Parish Clerks.

Possible marriage for Joseph Cooper.

1 May 1831 St Mary the Virgin, Blackburn

Joseph Cooper (made his mark) weaver bachelor of this parish.
Mary Simpson (made his mark) spinster of this parish.
witnesses Joseph Faibrother and Thomas Walsh (but these witnessed other marriages so may have been church people rather than relatives).

They were actually married at St. Peters Church, the site explains that there was a fire in St Marys.

At that time there were only certain churches that people could marry in, St Marys would have been the main church for Darwen. At that time fathers details were not included. (And interestingly one of mums direct relatives was married at St Marys in 1833.)

In the census Joseph was a labourer but at the time of his marriage he was a weaver. From looking at the Cotton town site it would seem that in this time period there were many hand loom weavers but it was the time when the process was being mechanised and times became very hard for the handloomers. From my own understanding (and I may very well have got hold of the wrong end of the stick) although being a handloom weaver was a hard job they did have freedom - they decided when and how long they worked at the loom, often whole families wove on one loom taking it in turns. When this work went into the mills they had to work the hours that the master set. It was a time of much unrest.